The end of your recent journey takes you to the outskirt of Dalelands, near the ruined Myth Drannor area. Unable to locate the Mythal by yourself, for one reason or another, you have joined a force within the Alliance defending the area against the Zhentarim army. Serving under Clenet, commander of the allying army of the Purple Dragon Knights, you were charged with the mission of intercepting Zhentarim supplying teams after a successful night raid on their normal stash of rations.

The mission seems overly easy, until you discover a second wagon team with much more men power as well as tactical thinkings. You have ordered your men to circle around and attack their flank and rear, and you are now faced with two scouts, one fleeing and one chasing, that hinders your advance towards the main supply group.

These Zhents have a bizarre take on chivalry, Liliana thinks as the pursuing scout taunts her. Either that or they just think this is the sort of thing that's supposed to irk me. Ignoring the clear threat posed by the scout behind her for the time being, she decides to press on, hoping to stop the scouts before the second caravan catches wind of their plan.

Once she closes with the fleeing scout, she immediately steps beyond sight to confound his attempts to defend himself and dash his head with her staff.

[OOC: smacking him around with at +22 melee 2d6+12, +2d6 sudden strike if he can't see invisibility.]

You quickly narrow the gap between the fleeing Zhent, and delivers a powerful blow as you conceal yourself and your attack. The man cries out in pain that is suddenly cut short, and falls to the ground as the staff strikes the back of his neck, accompanying which is a unpleasant cracking sound.

The scout chasing after you yells at the top of his voice in Common, "Prepare for battle! It's an ambush!"

You fades from view and easily strikes against the charging target, striking him heavily on his side, but fails to drop him. You catch a glimps of movement over at the upcoming supply wagons, and they seem to be pulling back somewhat.

Need to finish this fast. Need to get into position before the Zhents get brave enough to come out here and see what happened. Whirling her weapon about, Liliana strikes at the Zhent scout again and again, hoping to drop him quickly.

Feeling her stomach churn as the scout falls dead, Liliana thinks, Ugh. That poor guy's face is going to be haunting my dreams for weeks.

She quickly motions for the Dalelanders to find hiding places as she jogs back towards them. "They know we're out here, but they don't know how many," Liliana explains to as many Dalelanders as she gets into cover herself. "We need to strike some fear into them, chip away at them, make them panic and ansy. They'll send men out to investigate what happened, and if the group is small enough, we ambush them and take them apart piece by piece."

The Dalelanders settle and hides. The supply team seems to have stopped at its track, and you can somewhat see the Zhents talking to each other rather than advancing or, unlike you had hoped, send out a portion of them to investigate. After a short while, some of their men touches the wagons and the wagons disappear from view. All of them spread out in battle formation, and slowly advance down the road.

"They're going to keep advancing until they find the mess we left down the road for them," Liliana says. "We'll have to settle for hitting their rear when they get held up there. We're going to advance behind them. Try to keep quiet and keep distant from the road. When they get held up, we hit them hard."

Stay safe, she adds quietly. Too many people are already going to die today to throw more lives away over nothing.

The Dalelanders and the Zhents advance forward, respectively. Passing each other appears to be more difficult than previously thought, and some of the Zhents undoubtfully have caught some traces of movement by the Dalelanders. Some Magi in their party apparently are readying to unleash some magic that would scour out their hidden foes.

Furrowing her brow, Liliana shakes her head. "I don't like the looks of what those mages are doing," she says. "Not one bit." Turning to the Dalelanders behind her as she crouches, she says, "Pepper their rear with arrows on my order. Stay spread out in case one of those mages knows more than parlor tricks. Fire on my order."

With that, she reaches under her cloak and produces a small, vibrantly-colored ball of what appears to be wet paint, which she twists and shapes in her hands, causing an image of herself to appear square in the center of the road, behind the Zhents. Directing the illusion with her right hand, Liliana puts the thumb and forefinger of her left hand to her lips and whistles loudly. When the Zhents turn to look for the source of the sound, she tugs her ring finger, causing her illusionary puppet to wave at the Zhents.

Just take the bait and waste some magic and arrows on that, she thinks, keeping her free fingers crossed as she directs the illusion.

[OOC: Tossing a silent image out into the road where the Zhents can see it to try to draw some attention... and some fire.]

Some of the Magi are nearly ready to bath the surrounding forest in fire just to make visible of their foes, when the Zhents notice your Illusion. Bows and swords alike are quickly turned in its direction, and a couple Magi turns their attention to the Illusion as well. However, you count at least three more caster focusing their attention on the forest on either side, about to complete their spell within moments on notice.

"Accursed Dalelanders! Lay down and die, lest we torture your body and mind!" A soldier at the back yells. He holds a longsword in one hand, and a wooden wand in the other. On the longsword as well as his armor displays symbols of Bane, God of Strife and Hatred.

Every time. Every time they want to do it the hard way. She turns to the Dalelanders. "Those three mages who are looking to spray us with magic? Let fly at them."

Liliana quietly intones, "Spirits of war and strength, give me the power to strike these foul beasts down," before she cloaks herself in invisibility and rushes out of cover towards the mages. Just need to get close enough to them and they're history, she tells herself as she moves in.

On your command, arrows are loose against the casters. One of them immediately falls, while the other two fail to concentrate and pull off their spells as they catch sight of the incoming arrows. At the sametime, you step swiftly near the enemies, and you estimate about forty feet of travel to reach the flank of the group.

The man who spoke, apparently the commander, immediately dispatches his men and gives orders. On each side, eight swordsmen and four archers ready to engage the Cromyrian who have revealed their locations with their attacks. Four more swordsmen charges towards the illusionary figment you have created, while the two Magi previously targetting the illusion turns around to aid the flank, one on each side with Arcane spells.

As her invisibility falls away, Liliana sets her sights on the nearest mage and charges at him, twirling her staff as she closes and swings at his head. Can't let them use this sort of magic against the Dalelanders, she thinks before she fades away again.

[OOC: Charge the nearest mage, attack with quarterstaff at +27 for 2d6+15, then invisibility as a swift action to confound most efforts to counterattack.]

You move in and dodge through the flank, easily reaching the commander. Revealing yourself moments before the attack, you strike his back with a powerful blow; even though the armor cusions the attack and produces a dull sound, the impact was still strong enough to damage him.

He turns around, utters a foul curse, and defensively performs a spell from his dark deity. His body grows to nearly three times your height and he laughs, "Say your prayers to whatever false god you worship!"

In something like compliance, Liliana rolls away and holds a hand in front of her, making an odd gesture that could, under strange circumstances, be seen as akin to folding one's hand in prayer. "Spirits of all things magic, strip the spells from this fiend," she intones.

[OOC: +7 Tumble check to get out of reach, then casting dispel magic on him, caster level bonus = +10.]

You roll away safely without leaving needless openings, and incants to unleash your spell. You can feel that the Dispel Magic tears off some magical enhancements on him, but his body remains the same as before. The only difference is that his facial expression has changed from angry to angrier. He charges you with his mace, but misses completely.

I've taken down guys bigger than this, Liliana reminds herself. Just need to take him down hard, before he can connect with that big mace of his. She steps forward and swings her staff in a flurry of strikes at the commander.

[OOC: 5 foot step through this guy's reach, then attack at +27/+22 for 2d5+15.]

Both attacks connect and land soundly, as the now-large warrior seems to have trouble dodging your attacks. Groaning loudly, he counters with his own after he stumbles back; both swings of the mace hit you this time, ponding your back and leg heavily, nearly breaking your bones and you feel blood gushing up your throat. The man obviously have no problem beating up a girl. (27 damage)

A quick glance at the Cormyr army shows that against their foes, they seem to be doing better. The battles are quite even; while the Zhents have their advantage in number, Cormyrians are more skilled in battle.

I'm going to be sore tonight, Liliana bemoans as she whirls her staff and brings it down at the commander again, stepping back beyond sight as she falls back momentarily to shield herself from her foe's attacks with whatever she can find.

[OOC: Attack at +27 for 2d6+15, swift invisible, 30 foot move action away from the battle, to cover if possible, hiding at +19.]

You score another solid hit on the giant's knee before escaping in stealth. "Your little trick won't save you today!" The man yells as he holds forth his sword and incants. A warm pulse flows from the man and washes over you, as your invisibilty disappears. He grins and marches towards you.